Progressive Nation 2009

So awhile back I bought a ticket to the local date of the Progressive Nation tour. My buddy and band mate Jeff talked me into it. On one level, I didn’t need much convincing: near the top of the bill was Zappa Plays Zappa; I’d seen ZPZ a couple years earlier and was wowed by their performance (and I’d seen Frank Zappa in concert twice back in the day, and I own the first 50 or so of Frank’s LPs on vinyl, plus hundreds of FZ bootlegs, so I should know). But the other acts were Dream Theater – a band I had never really checked out – and a couple Swedish doom metal bands. Yikes, I thought; I’m definitely not a metal fan. But pay my $40 I did, confident in the knowledge that at least ZPZ would give me my money’s worth.

A couple months later the date rolled around. The Swedish groups were dropped from the bill (sadly, their label went belly-up) and they were replaced by two other groups I also didn’t know. It was an interesting evening. More soon.